


The Howling Wind

by Kay_fiction



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Some angst, kind of, probably some smut too in later chapters, rating will go up with added chapters, slight spoilers for after Chapter 9 in game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 21:56:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9204917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kay_fiction/pseuds/Kay_fiction
Summary: Set not long after Noctis's disappearance, Ignis is proving to himself he can function just fine on his own. He pushes his limits everyday, and he's learning to handle himself better with each hunt he takes on.With a powerful and potentially deadly storm brewing on the horizon, Ardyn manipulates Prompto's insecurities and plants the idea in his head that Ignis will die in the storm, and there's nothing the gunslinger can do about it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> While I still have a companion piece/2nd chapter planned for my other promnis fic "Sometimes", this little idea joined in and started overshadowing my other plots. 
> 
> So, consider this an earlier interaction that may or may not be a set up to Ignis and Prompto's relationship.
> 
> I'm on tumblr at kayfiction.tumblr.com for musings and FFXV shipping fun.
> 
> Unbeta'd except by myself.

"I don't want to go anywhere with you." Prompto's voice didn't quite shake, but he took an involuntary step back as his eyes tracked the menacing figure in the shadows.

"But I believe _you_ ," came the playfully slow reply, a devious smirk crossing that face. "You _do_ , or that blind ex-advisor friend of yours may die. You don't want that, do you?" Playful, and sinister. Ardyn couldn't help the broadening grin on his face as Prompto reacted exactly as he thought he would.

"I-Ignis!?" A bubble of panic burst in Prompto's chest, and his hands clenched. "What did you do?" The blond all but shouted in his quickly panicking haste.

That familiar, unpleasant chuckle followed his outburst, Ardyn lifted a finger. "Nothing at all." The  _yet_  hung in the air as an unvoiced threat. "Don't you think the weather is going to get rather nasty, though? Poor, blind Ignis, out on a hunt alone and caught in an awful storm."

Ardyn lead the blond along until stood on a low cliff that overlooked a once-familiar and often travelled field. Prompto all the while questioning the choice to follow, and yet feeling as if he had no choice. The sound of fighting could be heard carried on the rising wind. 

"That's him out there, you know," Ardyn said conversationally. "Trying to prove his worth now that the once-chosen-king is gone."

"Ignis! Oh, man. I've gotta find him!" Prompto tried to ignore Ardyn and his poison, headed to the slope that would take him down into the field. Hands grasped him from behind, and for a horrible moment the tall frame of Ardyn's body pressed to the blond's back. Immediately Prompto started to hyperventilate, and he struggled against the hands clenched tightly around his wrists. Hair tickled his face, then the stubble of his chin as he pressed his face along Prompto's. "Let me go!" 

He chuckled again, this time softer. The fear in Prompto squeezed a panicked whimper out of his throat. "What do you think _you_ can do for him? You are nothing to them without the young prince to give you purpose." The chuckle colored his words, dancing down the young gunslinger’s spine as cold sweat.

"That's not true!" Prompto spat defiantly, but the flame of need to help Ignis was squelched dramatically under the weight of those words. The storm was blowing in rapidly around them, the winds cold and the smell of rain and ice on the wind.

“Is it not? Well, then!” he called over the howl of the wind. “Better find him, quickly. Before it’s too late.” With that, Ardyn simply let go, shoving the blond off balance. Prompto teetered, arms waving, before another shove sent him over the side of the cliff.

Ardyn didn’t wait to see his descent, just hummed a light tune and turned his back on the cliff. He clutched his hat to his head in the rising winds, and walked away as if it would be of no consequence to him at all.

Prompto knew the cliff wasn’t that high, but the impact with the ground after his tumble down the jagged face made it feel like he had fallen much, much farther. Everything hurt, and his mind was a torrential mess of fear and poorly controlled panic. The physical pain didn’t matter as he scrambled to his feet and half-ran, half limped on a pained ankle blindly into the wind, following the sounds of the fighting. His light was cracked and flickering. It wouldn’t take long for the daemons to find him and his gun was in his hand by instinct alone.

“Ignis!” Prompto screamed as loudly as he could. The wind stole the sound as it came from him, and he feared whether anyone could have heard it. He kept on screaming Ignis’s name. He thought he could see the glow of magic, it wasn’t far. Fat, ice cold raindrops began to fall in rapid order, Prompto and the ground were soaked in seconds. _What do you thing you can do for him?_ The words echoed in his head and clenched in his chest. “IGNIS?!”

He could clearly see the shape of a large daemon—clearly enough to take the shot and not fear hitting Ignis. He took aim, slowing his headlong run enough that he could take the shot. The gun’s blast was clear even over the wind’s howl. _You are nothing to them without the young prince to give you purpose._

“Ignis?” It looked like Ignis was still fighting, but he looked exhausted, perhaps staggering under the disorienting rain. Prompto’s resolve hardened, he _had_ to help the advisor.

“Prompto? What are you doing here?” He could barely hear Ignis’s voice over the wind and rain, then there was a crack of thunder, and lightning flashed blindingly. It was so disorienting he crashed into something and tumbled to the ground on top of it. By the way it struggled, it must have been a goblin or something. The dusty ground-turned-mud made it hard to scramble away, but hands grabbed his arm and pulled him away before the nasty daemon could do any damage to him.

“What are you doing here?” Ignis’s shocked and irritated tones cut across the sounds of the storm as he questioned Prompto again.

“I-I” Ignis threw himself back into the fighting as Prompto wiped mud and water from his face. What would he tell Ignis—Ardyn was being a sick asshole and started all this? He was getting the feeling he shouldn’t have come out here, but… “No, don’t think about,” he muttered to himself, and followed Ignis into the fray. The dust-turned-mud was difficult to traverse and made his ankle throb all the more; it was hard to see anything in the flashes of lightning and the deluge pouring down on them. They fought together just as they had not that long ago, working together and taking down the daemons with what felt like no effort at all. For those few moments, everything felt like normal, doing combat together with an easy rapport, as if Ignis had never lost his sight and they were just waiting for Gladiolus and Noctis to join the fray.

Then—the soft, sinister chuckle invaded Prompto’s mind again. He couldn’t seem to banish it from his mind. “Ignis! We should get out of here!” He shouted fretfully, they were fighting against the wind as much as the daemons. How much longer could this last? He didn’t hear Ignis’s reply, everything went wrong all at once, one of them slipped first, but they both tumbled to the ground—and the next moments he wouldn’t remember because it happened so fast. All he knew was his muscle memory and desperation, Prompto recovered first and lunged between Ignis and the falling blade of the giant daemon they had yet to defeat. He cried out once and collided with the ground with a sickening squelch of mud.

Ingis was still struggling to rise as the unmistakable sound cut across everything else in his mind. Prompto was down, and the daemon gave a grunt and was moving back to strike again at its next target. The blind advisor’s rage flared, confounded by why Prompto would blindly throw himself into such a fatal blow. Magic erupted as fire from the blades of his daggers. The brunet charged at the daemons with a sharp, angry shout and struck out at it. In spite of the rain, wind, and mud, fire shot explosively from the ground of the daemon’s feet. The assault took one more push, a last blaze of fiery magic from Ignis, and the daemon was done.

“Prompto?” Ingis had lost track of his location in the furious attack, moving carefully to find him. He stumbled as his foot met a leg, and he bent out of the wind, hands moving deftly over the prone form. Nothing missing, he was breathing, so far so good. Ignis cradled the blond’s head gently, noting the lack of response from his unconscious form. Damn all if this wasn’t a time he cursed his blind eyes, wanting the visual reassurance that Prompto was alive and not in a critical state.

Daemons would be upon them again soon, or else the storm turn deadly. He had taken measures, plans he’d made in case of emergencies, to get help. He would call on them now, to ensure Prompto’s safety and to get him medical attention immediately. Two buttons to press, and he had Cindy on the phone, she would arrive shortly with some of the local hunters.

In pelting rain and ripping wind, Ignis concentrated on signs of more daemons arriving. The low peels and sharp cracks of thunder made it much more difficult to discern, and there was still no sign of response from the blond beneath him. He had to lean close and listen for his breath, feel his heartbeat just to be sure.

Cindy’s arrival left him with a sense of relief, even if his concern for Prompto did not cease.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've started on a 2nd chapter to this, and "Sometimes" is also getting more added to it. This might turn into a 3 or 4 chapter piece based on how it plays out.
> 
> kudos and criticisms are always welcome! <3


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